It’s one of those things you never think will happen to you. Until it does.
I’m sitting here trying not to try and biting my nails to the quick because someone has stolen my checking account information, and God knows what else. I only pray they don’t have my SSN, because they somehow got my current address, which even my bank doesn’t have updated, yet. (No one has access to my financial information but me, that’s why I’m so scared by this. I’m very careful.)
I caught it early, from a small unauthorized debit on my account, but the sorry fucking excuses for ejaculate their mother should have swallowed who stole my account information aren’t the ones trying not to have a panic attack, hoping that all their bills this month that are already in the mail go through before aforementioned thieves try something else. (I’ve already contacted my bank, etc)
I’m sorry for the lack of vitriol, but I’m honestly just scared fucking shitless.
To the shit-sucking testicle boil that robbed me of my peace of mind:
Fuck you. Fuck you with the fire of a thousand hells. Fuck you with the fury of Thor’s sparking phallus, right after he jams his hammer up your ass.
I hope you fucking choke on your own rotten ejaculate, after you enjoy the porn you bought with my money. I hope it was worth it, to drive someone into a panic attack and fits of terrified crying, for the cost of an adult website subscription.
I hope it works out for you. Someone using my name and address was wanted by the police before I left the US for my current assignment. I got pulled over a number of times when a random cop would run my plates. (thats how I found out…the police would ask me questions about being in certain places where this shitstain committed theft, etc.)
It was lucky for me to have been in uniform most of those times. It made it easier for the cops to believe me, I think. Otherwise I’d probably have gotten handcuffed!
I hope they find the asshole thats doing this to you and throw the book at him. Scumbag deserves to be cornholed in prison.
My experience with identity theft was my own dear mother, a couple of years ago in Calgary. It did happen to her, and it can happen to you. Since her bank card was co-opted, I’ve been very careful to cover my own PIN when I punch it in and check my statements frequently. Let me add to the chorus of voices that say this is not a rare occurence.
I’ll add to the chorus, too. What happened to your mom was the same thing that happened to me. Luckily, VISA caught it and I got a call regarding my debit card. Some asshole rang up $1000 at a Food Lion in Virginia with my account. I didn’t end up losing a dime, thank God, but my bank account was frozen for two weeks till they sorted it out. What a pain in the ass that was. I was eating Ramen noodles and rolling pennies for gas because even though I had money, I couldn’t get to it.
I haven’t contacted the police, but I’m trying to get everything sorted out so I can open a new checking account and have everything switched there before anything worse happens.
Also, I discovered whoever authorized the payment used a company that uses a third-party billing service that’s located in CYPRUS of all places.
So I don’t know if my recourse is going to be fucked because of that.
Luckily I am very much diligent on checking my balances and knowing exactly when there’s something amiss. I caught it early, thankfully.
It would be so much easier if they just stole my debit card. I could even see if they got my debit/credit card info, it would make sense to me since I use it everywhere. I never throw around my checking account info.
They got my checking account and CURRENT address, which is what’s baffling me. Almost nobody had my current address. I just recently moved.
I’ve also been a victim – sorry to hear it’s happened to you. In my case, the perp opened several utilities accounts in my name in Columbus, OH, where I’ve never lived, and bought some plane tickets with my credit card.
If you haven’t already, I’d advise reading up on strategies at this site, and flagging your credit report with fraud alerts at all three major US credit reporting agencies. It’s fairly easy to do, and it means that no one can authorize credit on your behalf without you getting notified first.
Are you in an apartment building? I had my bank account cleaned out once by what I suspect was the on-site manager of the apartment building I lived in (the theft was never solved, but the circumstances all pointed to them). This was before identity theft; these days, a crooked residential manager may steal your identity as well as your bank account.
I lived in an apartment last year. Right now I live in a house, and very few people even know my new address, yet. (I live with my sister, I pay her for expenses. My name isn’t signed to anything and I’m not on a lease.) Most of my billing/credit info, INCLUDING my bank that has the checking account, still have me at the old address.
I’m currently taking a look at the processes detailed in the link kindly provided above, and it seems like I have quite a bit of work to do.
I also don’t know how much it’s going to be affected by the fact that the company handling the transaction is not in the USA.
I sympathize with you, Leah M. And suggest you send in Loki for the second act.
My credit card got compromised a few years back; I only found out about it when a random store (that didn’t have a web presence) called me to verify the charge. Since only the credit card number was compromised, this didn’t turn into a full-blown identity theft case.
But it still highlighted the primary problem of identity theft and its cousins, the main reason that serving the perpetrators up as dinner for Elder Deities is appropriate: When your identity is compromised, you ARE NOT the victim - the companies that lost money and goods to the thief are. In my case, it was the credit card company that suffered a loss; fortunately, their antifraud department was on the ball that day.
I’m not advocating their use, but there are various “premium services” being sold by companies that are designed to “repair” identity theft damage. I have yet to encounter one that can not be replaced (for free) by applying your own elbow grease to research everything that you can and should do to tie up all loose ends and repair the damage yourself.
The convenience of not having to use your own time and energy to figure it all out is apparently worth from $300-$400/year, based on some folks’ business models.
Leah M, I’m glad you caught this so quickly - and I hope that this is all that happens.
I suggest you talk to the police, if only to get a record of this with law enforcement, ASAP.
I also wonder - have you been shredding all your bank statements? The fact that you’re so convinced that the new address isn’t in your paperwork makes me think that they may well have focused on your trash some fine day. That or grabbed mail from the mail box.
And on that note - suggest to your sister that she might want to audit her own finances. If they did seize some trash to find numbers - they might also have gotten her information too.
Stole from you. I don’t get it. Did you own this information? Was it on your person? Where did it physically reside for some devious fella to have stolen it?
Nobody has stolen anything from you (cept some money). They “stole” information about you. You do not own that information (no you don’t, the bank, the government, the post office do).
You should have nothing to worry about. (You do though, because the people who do own the information are very upset that it has been used improperly. They don’t blame themselves, however; you are to blame. Even though there is no possible way you could have avoided this.)
Sorry, I don’t mean to be callous about this but I have just been thinking about this idea of Identity (Information) Theft recently and how rectifying it is somehow the responsibility of the person. Yet the person never owned, or even controlled, the information stolen. Interesting, we are frightened of losing control of information that we never really controlled in the first place. The information is a creation of other organizations. Shouldn’t they be worried about it being “stolen”?
Colloquially, ‘stole my information’ is acceptable usage.
Perhaps more accurately it’s ‘Is utilizing my financial information in an unauthorized manner’, but when you’re upset and feel powerless to stop someone abusing your credit, you don’t really think semantics right away.
I think I’m perfectly in the right to be worried about it being ‘stolen’, because I can suffer dire consequences, at least to begin with. Checks can bounce, I can amass fees, I can suffer stress from dealing with all this. Yes, it will get all sorted out in the end, but I can be stressed and upset having to deal with all this and take attention away from other things I could be doing, like spending time with my family.
I try. Spewing random cuss words actually makes me feel better.